Uncategorized – Jenna Laib

Culture & Identity in the Math Classroom

22 Nov 202522 Nov 2025

How do elements of the culture students bring into the classroom interact with the classroom culture we create? What does it mean to shift or honor them? Earlier this week,…

Tomás and the Jellybeans: Increasing Access

How do we support students who are struggling to access grade level content? In my own school, I focus my efforts on co-teaching and coaching, but I also see students…

“Is zero a number?”: Interviews with a Whole Class of Kindergartners

19 Sep 202319 Sep 2023

When I first became a math specialist in my district, I was assigned to work with upper elementary, middle school, and... kindergarten. I had never worked with kindergartners in an…

Featured in EdWeek: “Graphs Are Hard for Students to Digest. Can a ‘Slow Reveal’ Help?”

28 Aug 202330 Aug 2023

Last May, EdWeek journalist Sarah D. Sparks contacted me regarding an upcoming article about data science in K-12 education. I was immensely flattered that she wanted to schedule a time…

Eight Cupcakes #tmwyk

How can we arrange 8 cupcakes in a pan that has space for 12? In my last post, I wrote about a conversation I had with my 7yo daughter, S,…

How We Listen: Astrid’s Thinking about 5 x 6

27 Mar 202327 Mar 2023

"Clinical interviews are an opportunity to listen closely," I caught myself telling a colleague recently. But... is that enough? How we frame the act of listening changes our entire experience.…

How Many Birds: Mathematizing “Two Many Birds” In First Grade, Part 2

28 Apr 202227 Apr 2022

I have been reading Allison Hintz and Antony Smith’s Mathematizing Children’s Literature (Stenhouse, 2022), and it has disrupted how I think about the use of children's literature in math class. In my…